Forza Horizon 5 Coming to PS5
We’ve long known that Xbox has switched its strategy to push their first party games out to multiple platforms but this has been limited to smaller projects which, while exciting, didn’t turn too many heads. That is until now, however- with the first of Xbox’s big first party franchises confirmed to be coming to PlayStation later this year: Forza Horizon. This is Xbox’s mainstay racing series and, with other games like Microsoft Flight Simulator and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle confirmed to be coming to Sony’s consoles at some point in the future, Xbox’s multiplatform approach is seeming more and more real.
This announcement was a surprise for many- with a lot of PS5 fans finding out by stumbling on the game in the ‘coming soon’ section of the PlayStation store. No release date has been set for this just yet but its likely that it’ll come at some point In 2025. It’s unlikely that this will get a physical release, however, considering that the original Xbox release was from way back in 2021. It also won’t be available via Game Pass on your PS5 since Xbox have yet to push their subscription service onto Sony’s platforms.
To what extent this opens the floodgates remains to be seen- as well as just how fast the floodwater is going to rush in. Will we see Halo: The Master Chief Collection or Starfield come to the PS5 within the next year? That remains to be seen but, considering the lax announcement of Forza Horizon 5 coming to the system, it wouldn’t be too much of a surprise to see Xbox slowly bringing their biggest franchises over to Sony’s consoles.
Image by Playground Games
The question that comes to the minds of many with this announcement is clear: why buy an Xbox? With so many first party games coming to their competitor’s platforms within a few years of release, it may be worth waiting while experiencing the exclusive games from the likes of PlayStation (which will most certainly not be coming to Xbox consoles any time soon). Xbox has confirmed that they will not be stepping out of the hardware ring- although that could change. With the company focusing far more on the software business with their Game Pass push, Xbox could become the new Sega- just how quickly that transition happens remains to be seen.
